Let's begin again
by Setsuna-X
Summary: Sometimes doing the right thing isn't easy. Day 5 of Chrisawa2k16 week on tumblr. Prompt: Battery / Catching up


"I didn't think you would actually come," said Eijun softly so the others would not be able to hear.

"Of course I would. It's your graduation," replied Chris, a bit confused at the hostility.

"I'm just saying that I'm surprised you bothered," continued on Eijun as he leaned against the side of the school building.

"If you want me to leave I will," said Chris as he started to turn away.

Any other time Eijun would have grabbed onto Chris' arm and cling to him. He would beg him not to go and then proceed to chat his ear off. None of that happened however.

"Sure, go ahead and leave just like last time," muttered Eijun bitterly as he stared at the ground, tears gathering in his eyes.

At that Chris stopped in his tracks and whirled around.

"Excuse me?!" he asked angrily.

Eijun regained his bearings and looked straight into Chris' face. "You heard me! I said you should just leave me just like you did last time. I don't even know why you came! You haven't talked or visited since you left Seidou and I'm supposed to believe you actually came to see me?" ranted Eijun with tears streaming down his cheeks.

He was just so angry and upset. Ever since Chris left Seidou they stopped talking completely. He had to hear from Miyuki that Chris had gone to America to study overseas at his father's insistence. Whenever he tried to contact Chris through email all he got was silence. He didn't know what he had done to upset the other teen, but it had kept up at night.

For months he wracked his brain trying to think of what he could have possibly done that would have driven Chris away but he couldn't think of a single thing. In the end he decided that Chris just didn't want anything to do with him anymore and that had been it. He had buried the feelings he had for Chris deep in his heart and had focused on training. Although it hurt to think about Chris it was the catcher's teachings that happened to stick with him more than anything else.

Slowly his heart had started to heal and he began to move on. He was scouted to attend several different universities in Tokyo on a baseball scholarship with eyes at turning pro in a few years. Chris had been completely out of the picture and Eijun was finally okay with it all. Until now. Chris had no right showing up at his graduation from Seidou and act like nothing had happened, like he hadn't ignored him for the past two years.

Chris was completely stunned. He didn't expect Sawamura to have been so upset at his lack of communication. He knew that Sawamura had a bit of a hero worship going on and that they made a great battery but he honestly didn't think he mattered all that much.

If anything it was Chris that had felt too much. It was around the time he helped teach Sawamura the outside pitch before the Fall Tournament when Chris realized that his feelings for Sawamura weren't as pure as he had been led to believe.

He could not in good conscious ruin the one person that helped make him love baseball again. Too long had he gone bitter and jealous but Sawamura swooped in like a hurricane and had swept him up in his energy and love of the game. It was hard to ignore that tempest and so Chris didn't bother. He caved and let the winds take him where they may. However, he hadn't counted on falling in love.

Once he realized his feelings he knew that he couldn't destroy one of the only good things in his life. He packed his belongings and tucked away his memories of Sawamura and fled. It wasn't his finest moment and it had managed to make his father happy so he hadn't thought too much about it afterward.

He did remember getting several emails the first few months he had moved away but whenever he viewed them all he could feel was a pang in his chest as he longed to be back in Tokyo and be able to form another battery with Sawamura. Overtime he just enjoyed getting the messages but he could never bring himself to answer them. This, along with moving to an entirely different country, had caused the rift to begin between them. After a while the messages stopped coming all together and he wasn't sure what he had thought about that. All he knew was that he was sad a lot of the time. Every morning he would wake up and check his phone to see if he had a message, but nothing. He would chat occasionally with Miyuki and Tanba. On rare occasion Jun or Tetsu would contact him, but Sawamura had stopped completely. Miyuki had tried to get him talk to Sawamura around four months after he moved, but Chris had ignored his concerns. He had thought he was doing the right thing. Sawamura was better off forming new relationships with people and Chris hadn't wanted to ruin what they had already built. There was no point in being selfish if all it was going to result in was in both of them getting hurt.

But it looked as if he had failed spectacularly.

"I'm sorry," said Chris sincerely. "I did want to see you though, even if you don't believe me."

Sawamura could just stand there, his chest heaving as he tried to get his feelings under control.

"How am I supposed to believe that? You never replied to any of my messages and now you're just here, acting as if nothing had happened. I just don't understand why you would do that," said Eijun, more confused and hurt.

Chris really wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. He had wanted to see Sawamura's graduation from Seidou and since he was on spring break from classes he figured it was the perfect time for a visit. He missed Tokyo and his friends, but most of all he had missed Sawamura. He did think that he could just show up and things would be as before, but that had been naïve of him. It was more wishful thinking on his part, but all he had done was hurt the one person he never wanted to cause harm too.

"I really am sorry, Sawamura," said Chris as he leaned forward and grabbed Sawamura into a hug, tucking the teen under his chin. Chris couldn't remember how often he thought of doing this very thing in the past. It was always hard to restrain himself around Sawamura, but he could not take in that saddened face any longer.

Sawamura stiffened for a moment but soon let his body sag against Chris' chest. He shifted enough to get his arms around Chris' waist, holding on so tight, afraid that everything that just happened was a dream and when he awoke Chris would be gone again.

"Why did you leave me? Why did you go to America without saying goodbye?" asked Sawamura into Chris' neck.

Chris did his best to hold back a shiver at the ticklish sensation.

"Let's just say that I thought I was doing the right thing."

"Right thing?"

"Yes, I thought that by going away I was helping preserve something precious to me, but in reality it seems as if I almost broke it beyond repair."

Sawamura vowed he would get to the bottom of those reasons sometime in the future, but for now he was content in staying in Chris' arms.

They both lost track of how long they were wrapped around one another, neither willing to let go. However Eijun knew it wouldn't be long before Haruichi and Furuya started looking for him. Kuramochi and Miyuki were probably skulking around too.

He slowly separated himself from Chris but didn't stray out of his arms.

"Do you forgive me?" asked Chris, his heart pounding wildly.

"I'm not sure," answered Eijun honestly, "but I'm willing to start again."

Chris let out a relieved sigh.

"If that's the case, I don't want to mess this up again," said Chris as he drew Sawamura back into him. He bent his head down and kissed him. Their lips met hesitantly but soon they each grew confident that their feelings were reciprocated and kissed in earnest.

After separating Eijun leaned back up and gave Chris another peck on his lips.

"You have so much to fill me in on. I want to hear everything you've been up to," said Eijun as he grinned back up at Chris.

Chris smiled back and vowed that he would never let Sawamura go again. He couldn't believe that he was ready to give this up for what he thought was the greater good.

"Yes, we have much too catch up on."

 **THE END**


End file.
